The ESP250 has an output power capability of 250 kilowatts and 1 megawatt of energy storage capacity. It’s suited for both short- and long-duration storage, with available energy ranging from two to 12 hours of output duration. The 40-foot batteries (each about the size of two shipping containers) are designed to be deployed individually or linked together for larger-scale projects.

“Most folks will concentrate on the bigger systems because of the economics,” said Tim Hennessy, Imergy president and CEO, in an interview. “We’ve been able to go to the low-end platform and compete almost on the commodity market with the lead-acid batteries and lithiums. Now on the larger scale, which is our latest release, we’re able to leverage economies of scale.”

Imergy (formerly Deeya Energy) started out in the telecommunications space in India, where its 5-kilowatt modules were used to displace remote diesel generators. After some rebranding, the company made a strong push into the commercial and industrial energy storage market last year with the launch of the ESP30 (30-50 kilowatts).

Imergy announced last week the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District will install several ESP30 batteries for a total capacity of 250 kilowatts/1 megawatt-hour as part of a microgrid project at Las Positas College in Livermore. Imergy andGrowing Energy Labs Inc. (Geli), a designer of energy storage and microgrid management solutions, received a $1.5 grant from the California Energy Commission to participate in the project.

The smart microgrid made up of Imergy’s institutional-scale vanadium redox flow batteries, a 2.35 megawatt solar array, ice thermal storage and ten level two electric vehicle charging stations is expected to produce $75,000 in annual energy savings for the District.

Other companies making vanadium flow batteries include China’s Rongke Power, Germany’s Gildemeister and Japan’s Sumitomo. Hennessy claims Imergy’s technology is one-third the cost of its competitors because of its unique electrolyte.

Imergy has benefited from licensing research at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which developed a new vanadium electrolyte that could improve energy density by more than 70 percent. Two other American companies, Washington-based UniEnergy Technologies and the Massachusetts-based startup WattJoule have also licensed PNNL technology.

Where Imergy has been able to edge out its competitors is on material cost. Vanadium is abundant but expensive to extract from the ground. Imergy has developed a unique chemistry that allows it to use cheaper, recycled resources of vanadium from mining slag, fly ash and other environmental waste.

With this chemistry, the levelized cost of energy for Imergy’s batteries is less than half of any other battery on the market right now, according to Hennessy. Vanadium flow batteries are orders of magnitude cheaper than lithium-ion batteries on a lifetime basis because they can be 100 percent cycled an unlimited number of times, whereas lithium-ion batteries wear down with use, according to the firm. Despite the compelling cost claims from Imergy, lithium-ion has been the predominant energy storage technology being deployed at this early point of the market. And very few flow batteries are currently providing grid services.

Imergy’s capital costs are lower than every other battery technology except lead-acid, Hennessy added. But he believes the company can hit that mark (roughly $200 per kilowatt-hour) by the end of the year by outsourcing contracts to manufacturing powerhouse Foxconn Technology Group in China. Delivery of the ESP250 is targeted for summer of 2015.

At this price, Imergy says the ESP250 offers an affordable alternative to peaker plants and can help utilities avoid investing more capital in the grid. Some might disagree with the claim that grid-scale storage can compete with fast-start turbines and natural gas prices below $3 per million Btu. But according to Hennessy, it all comes down to the application. Batteries can’t compete with gas at the 50-megawatt scale, but they can compete with gas at the distribution level.

“Batteries that are distributed have a huge advantage over gas, because when you buy gas down at the low end, you’re paying a lot more than $3 to $4 per MMBtu, because you’ve got to pay for all the transmission down to the small end,” he said.

Demand for cost-effective energy storage is growing as intermittent renewables become cheaper and come on-line in higher volumes. GTM Research anticipates the solar-plus-storage market to grow from $42 million in 2014 to more than $1 billion by 2018.

Imergy sees a ripe market in the Caribbean, parts of Africa and India, Hawaii and other places where the LCOE for solar-plus-storage is already competitive. As costs continue to fall, New York, California and Texas will also become attractive markets.

VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. and Electrochem Technologies & Materials Inc. are pleased to announce the filing of the national entry phases in South Africa, India and the United States of the international patent application.

VanadiumCorp and its Board of Directors are pleased to announce the following corporate updates: Management’s recommendations approved by shareholders at the AGM / The Company welcomes Mr. Sokhie Puar to the board of VanadiumCorp / Stock Option Update

VanadiumCorp and Electrochem have signed a Patent Option Agreement for Ultra to purchase an exclusive license. Ultra plans to utilize the Australian license of "VEPT" to expedite construction of the world’s first dedicated vanadium processing facility.

VanadiumCorp and Electrochem are pleased to announce that The World Intellectual Property Organization has officially published the Patent Cooperation Treaty of the International Patent Application WO 2018/152628 (A1) on August 30th, 2018.

VanadiumCorp is pleased to announce that Francois Cardarelli, President of Electrochem Technologies & Materials Inc. will be presenting at the Canadian Institute of Mining conference held in Chibougamau on May 2, 2018.

Following the release of an energy storagetechnoeconomic study, ‘The South AfricaEnergy Storage Technology and Market Assessment’, advocating that South Africa requires market preparation to take advantage…

Combining solar panels with batteries to keep electricity flowing when the sun isn't shining has long been the target for companies dabbling in the emerging technologies of the power grid.

This year is seeing more development in that space than ever before, thanks to falling battery and solar prices, the marketing prowess of super-entrepreneur Elon Musk, and national and international clean-energy and climate-change policies.

The clean-energy boom is about to be transformed. In a surprise move, U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind for another five years. This will give an unprecedented boost to the industry and change the course of deployment in the U.S.

The extension will add an extra 20 gigawatts of solar power—more than every panel ever installed in the U.S. prior to 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The U.S. was already one of the world's biggest clean-energy investors. This deal is like adding another America of solar power into the mix.

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VanadiumCorp is a mining and technology company with a vision to become the primary producer of vanadium and specialty metals. The Company growth strategy is focused on development of industry leading resources and process technology located in Canada.